Govt determined to sit out rail strike

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 8

Govt determined to sit out rail strike

NZPA-Reuter Paris France’s nine-month-old conservative Government, facing an upsurge of pub-lic-sector union unrest, says it will not run the risk of sparking a fresh round of inflation by giving in to pay demands. The Budget Minister, Alain Juppe, a close associate of the Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac, said in a radio interview that the Government was determined not to allow a public-sector wage explosion.

“With the wage bill going up by 4 or more per cent, our entire economic policy would be in ruins and our national econo-

mic recovery would be jeopardised,” he said. France’s inflation is now running at about 2 per cent, and the Government said it will not allow more than a 3 per cent rise in public sector wage bills this year. Allowing for seniority and merit rises, this means a maximum of between 1 and 2 per cent will be available for across-the-board pay rises. The communist-led C.G.T. union has urged an extension of the 20-day-old rail strike to other sectors, but other union federations have refused to support the campaign. No solution is in sight, in spite of claims by the State-owned S.N.C.F. rail network that more drivers are drifting back to work. S.N.C.F. said it would be able to run 300 main-line

trains today, about half the normal number, but significantly more than last week.

Officials said only 13 depots out of 94 had voted to end the strike, the longest rail stoppage in France since 1968.

The C.G.T. plans symbolic stoppages this week in the State electricity and gas utility, the naval dockyards and the Paris Metro rail and bus network.

Mr Chirac’s political authority has been seriously weakened since he withdrew his university reform bill last month in the face of a wave of student protest. The rail strike, which is largely a grass-roots movement like the student revolt, has led to fears that the Government may again have to compromise to preserve social peace.